Abstract

The article analyzes, from a phenomenological-hermeneutic standpoint, three aspects of Kierkegaard’s views on existence: existence as freedom and becoming, existence as relation to an absolute telos, and existence as acceptance of one’s own being. The purposes of the analysis are twofold. First, it aims to show that existence, being a self-election and as such a finite action, consummates itself, paradoxically, as a passion for infinitude and obedience to the Absolute. Second, it attempts to explain the two fundamental dimensions of obedience: the immanent dimension as assent to the pathos that moves our existence, and the transcendent dimension as the acceptance of our dependence on an uncertain and unattainable Absolute.